Mateo’s Cocina Latina

Reviews

• Shayla B.

  star star star star star_border 7 July 2026

  It's all about the experience. When you come to Mateo's, you're in for a overall wonderful experience. What other restaurant in this area has a chef who personally cooks up a meal that isn't even on the menu, but does it simply because you requested it?!!What chef will hand deliver that meal right to you! What chef will actually take a break from the kitchen just to chat about how he learned his technique and how he was globally inspired to create unique dishes?! Mateo. Chef Mateo! This man is a mastermind.
  
  The dishes here are incredibly unique. For one thing, none of the meals here are prepared with hormones or GMO's. All of the ingredients are locally sourced from farms around the neighborhood. The cuisine is influenced my Chef Mateo's Yucatán roots but also heavily inspired by many of the global techniques that he learned while cooking abroad. Traditional not so much. Adventurous, totally. Delightful, yes. Because his dishes are globally inspired, there will obviously be a few hit or misses depending on your palate.
  
  When my friends and I dined here, we ordered several different dishes. Now what I'll say is that this place isn't cheap by any means. But for the QUALITY and the experience, it is truly worth it. We sat on their cozy back patio under their warm heat lamps and watched as every dish began to come out and grace our table.
  
  *Olive oil guacamole: Very fresh but lacked a bit in flavor.
  *Crispy oyster salad: Really tasty but the portion was on the smaller side.
  *Scallop ceviche: Amazing flavors! Too small to be considered a shareable dish.
  *Honey mussels: The favorite of the table! Succulent and didn't sound appetizing at first, but this combo was simply dynamite.
  *Pork Belly w/ sweet red sauce: the red sauce complimented the pork SO well! A nice crispy exterior with a fatty interior. I wasn't a fan of the extra fattiness, but my friend scraped the plate and inhaled it.
  *8 & 4 Oz Burgers: Both burgers were played beautifully and cooked to perfection. A very lean and juicy beef chuck was provided. Hailed as the favorite entree of the night.
  *Pan de Cazon: Totally not what I was expecting it to look like, but the flavors on this were out of this world!!
  
  A few hits and misses with the food but overall, it was a great dinner. Let me not forget to mention the cocktails! They were colorful, beautiful, and oh so refreshing! These are the kinds of cocktails that I want to be sipping on at the beach. They were fruity and tropical. Just solely enjoyable. We really had an amazing time here. I also have to mention our server Mia! She was incredible! She told us about her personal journey here to the US and it made me feel just that much more connected with her.
  
  Excellent service and an excellent experience. If you're looking to have a one of a kind of experience, add Mateo's to your list.

• Caitlen S.

  star star star star_border star_border 7 July 2026

  After coming here for a quick bite, I was intrigued to come here for my birthday dinner! The menu seemed a little bare unfortunately, I expected to find more items I would have liked to order, specifically vegetarian items.
  
  Service was good, drinks were good and the food wasn't as good as I would have liked. I had my expectations high after my initial visit and unfortunately they just didn't meet them.
  
  I was surprised that on a Friday night there was barely anyone there - for a place that services cocktails I would have assumed there would have been more of a crowd.
  
  Not the experience I was looking for and I don't believe I'll be returning.

• Jeffrey E.

  star star star star star_border 5 July 2026

  I was very impressed with Cocina Latina starting from the way in which we were greeted to the simple way the menu was layed out. First course were the chips, that are non greasy and light. Was complimented with a small dish of green sauce that would have been better in bigger container making it easier to dip. We ordered a variety of the tamale plates that were really good and complimented with  rice and beans all seasoned perfectly....The dish came in an oblong bowl whose design make it easy to mix and eat. Appreciated the way they catered to children with crayons and coloring paper and a special menu. When served the quantity looked ok but all said and done all of us required doggy bags....except my granddaughter who loves beans. Will definitely return.....

• Craig G.

  star star star star star 1 July 2026

  Fellow Elites accompanied based on the recommendation of Christine R.
  Having just hung out for a tasting at Matrix Winery thanks to our pal Shayla, who is a member; we were feeling perty darn lubricated after tasting 16 varietals, and only eating a couple of meatballs cooked in one of the Zinfandels.
  
  We arrive at that dead time before a restaurant is gearing up for dinner having cleaned up and took breaks after lunch...only a single staff member and a couple of customers the the bar.
  
  Well the idea of eating on the patio seemed quaint at the time, as the afternoon sun still brightly illuminated the surrounding orange and red trees outside the confines of the extensive garden and patio. Beside they had a couple of heaters strategically placed at a corner table where we decided to set up shop.
  
  It took a bit of time for the evening staff to assemble in. So we perused the lunch menu to discover what would quickly eliminate the hangry pangs.
  
  This isn't a good place to come hangry. Nor is it a good place if your expectations are set on the the typical Mexican palette of flavors and ingredients. So it took a couple of initial misses for us to settle in.
  One miss was the avocado and oil guacamole with fancy pita type crisps augmented by a generous helping of pomegranate seeds. It wasn't the popping avocado flavor Bae expected, I expected... we passed it around all agreed needed salt. Even tho I added salt from Shayla's cocktail that she didn't want as well as heir killer habanero sauce. Ah well it sufficed to help make us less hangry.
  My oyster salad was a very good salad but the over cornmeal battered tiny little oysters got lost in all that farm to fresh and bright veggies.
  Shayla and Christine each got rock cod a layered deconstruction of a tamale pie looking thing. That was bursting with complex flavors yet the fish still managed to shine prominently.
  
  Meantime the evening staff started arriving and getting busy. Our waitress Mia from Kauai and other helpers to turn on the heaters set the table etc while Mateo came out to greet Christine. As it turned out we got quite the education. Mateo hearing I was heading to Copenhagen mentioned he worked for a bit at Noma and was excited to go back. He gave us the names of other places to eat while there.
  Christine wanted the pork belly but it wasn't on tonight's menu. Mateo said no problem and disappeared into the kitchen.  Meantime having sipped our yummy cocktails, we continued to eat our first dishes. Mateo triumphantly returns with a beautiful platter of fresh veggies garnished around a 12 in long strip of pork belly and he proceeds to pour a sweet spicy glaze over the top of that bad boy.
  None of us like pork belly except Christine. It a texture thing. But I must say, the it wasn't all that inedible... it reminded me of my spicy candied smoked bacon I put in my thanksgiving Mac and cheese... but a bit more...chewy and spongy.
  Bae and I ordered off the dinner menu. I got the scallop ceviche and Bae got the mini burger. Mateo returned to discuss more about tales of a chef and pallet popping food and wine pairings he's had. He discussed the genius of European chefs who have more impressive skills due to limited ingredients. How they can generate umami out of crazy combinations of the absolutely the most simple things. His latest passion to play with flavors and textures of seaweeds. Something the Nordic chefs and California chefs have in abundance.
  
  I totally tasted what he was was talking about when my scallops ceviche arrived. Briny, bright and anise infused. It  was so clean and fresh, like a York peppermint patty whooosh!
  I am a big guy however and the is pallets popping initial foray may have quelled the hangry pangs, but frankly I was still straight up hungry. I spied Baes slider that was the size of a regular burger anywhere else. It looked so good as Mateo returned to check on us. I said that burger Looks amazing. His eyes rolled back and he imagined biting into one of his burgers topped with tangy blue cheese oozing out in front hands clenched like he's holding a burger. I said I'll have that! The full one and if you have blue cheese go for it. "Ah... I'm gonna work on that now.." he got excited and disappeared in the back. That was a gynormous and delish burger which I had to eat deconstructed as it was 10 inches tall with two tomato slice thick as the burger itself.
  Mind you this is while he has an almost full house in the front of the house. Wow between Mia and him and the other guys, we felt like royalty being cared for so personally.  
  Certainly walking through on the way out, I didn't think anyone was having as much fun as we were! Even Mia commented it was fun serving all of us, evening asking us to highly consider a breakfast return meal. For sure we will return, without the hangry pangs. More to allow Mateo to continue enlighten our minds as he educates our palettes. What's for dinner? What ever the hell Mateo is inspired to make.

• Doron A.

  star star_border star_border star_border star_border 24 June 2026

  I have been in here before, and not particularly enjoyed the food or the cocktails. But I don't like to write bad reviews of local restaurants, so I didn't. But after the way we were treated on our last visit, I can no longer hold my tongue. We showed up on a holiday, without reservations. But the restaurant was clearly half empty, so we felt maybe we could get a seat. The staff at the front, when we told them we did not have reservations, simply brushed us off and turned away. We inquired whether we could take the open seats at the bar, and were told, "oh yeah, sure, go ahead." Umm.. ok. So we perched ourselves at the bar, and began to wait. I should point out that the bartender, who seemed to be working on a Phd in customer avoidance, was not insanely busy. Sure, he was working, but was the bar three deep? No. Was the restaurant slammed? No. Did he give even one tiny damn about the four new hungry and thirsty customers who had just pulled up to his bar? Apparently also no. Five minutes went by. Then ten. Not even a "hi folks, I'll be with you in a minute." At this point I felt compelled to wipe down the sticky remnants of the last customer (did I mention the bar was dirty?), and one of the people I was there with asked the bartender for a wet towel, or help cleaning the bar. That garnered the only words we were to hear from him the whole night, delivered with a healthy dose of snark: "we'll get to you when we can." And he then turned away, apparently to focus on his ongoing research in ignoring customers. Perhaps, if he had "gotten to us," it would have been ok. But another 5 minutes slid by. No towel, no water, no menus, nothing but a very very cold shoulder. What the actual F? We are Sonoma County locals, who came in well dressed and ready for a great dinner and drinks. But after 15 minutes of being studiously ignored we simply got up, announced that we were leaving (to a collective shrug from the entire staff) and took our money elsewhere. So lets add this up. The food (on my previous visits) is mediocre and overpriced, the last time I ordered a cocktail it was borderline undrinkable, and the service is the absolute worst. Terrible. Don't go!!